


You Don't Know Me

by daphrose



Category: Victorious (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, How Beck and Jade met, Humor, Pre-show, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 11:32:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14163927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daphrose/pseuds/daphrose
Summary: Jade found Beck puzzling, and she hated puzzles. Beck found Jade interesting, and he liked interesting. Of course the one girl who scared everyone off would attract the one boy who had no fear."I'm dangerous, I'm warning you. But you're not afraid of me, and I can't convince you that you don't know me."





	1. First Kisses and Four Lunches

**Author's Note:**

> There shouldn’t be much content in this story that wouldn’t be in the show, so I’m rating it general audiences. Jade’ll be mean and there will be kissing, but again, nothing that wouldn’t be on the show. I don’t own Victorious. Any OCs are mine, as is the plot. Enjoy!

“Attention! Attention, everyone! Hey! Be quiet!” The backstage buzz died down, and Mr. Turton nodded. “Excellent. I have bad news. I just got off the phone with Melissa’s mom, and apparently she’s in the hospital getting an emergency appendectomy today. I’m sorry to spring this on all of you so quickly, but that’s the way theater is sometimes. Melissa’s part will be played by her understudy, Jade West. Thank you. As you were. Hey, Jade!” Mr. Turton pulled Jade aside. “Do you think you’re ready for this?”

“What, you think I’m not?”

“That’s not what I said. This is the first big play of the year. This’ll be your Hollywood Arts debut, and it’s on fairly short notice.”

“So?”

Mr. Turton sighed. “Well, I’m glad you’re confident. Amy’ll get you into makeup and costume. We’re on in thirty minutes.”

Jade walked over to the makeup chair, her heart beating faster than she cared to admit. She hadn’t been expecting to actually be in the play this time. She’d practiced all the lines in and out, but she had assumed that her only audience would be her mirror. Now, in a few minutes, all her dreams would come true.

“Are you excited?” Amy, a tenth grader, asked as Jade sat down.

“I don’t like excitement. It makes me feel nauseous.”

“That’s the best part! I remember when I did makeup for my first play. Your Hollywood Arts debut is _always_ exciting, and I’m sure it’s even better for actors!”

“Whatever.”

Amy ignored her and began to remove Jade’s makeup while chattering obnoxiously. She applied the new makeup for the role and eventually moved on to her hair. Amy twisted her brown locks up into a bun and secured them under a hairnet. She slipped the black curly wig over Jade’s head and began to secure it with pins.

“Not a bad look,” Jade muttered while fingering the faux hair.

“By the way, can I just say that I’m so totally jealous of you?”

“You can say it, but I’ll still think you sound stupid.”

“You get to kiss _Beck Oliver_!”

Shoot. She’d forgotten about that part. Stage kissing always made her want to gag. “The kiss is just one scene.”

“I know, but _Beck Oliver_! He’s totally the hottest guy in school.”

“Whatever.”

“You don’t care?”

“Nope.”

“I’m still jealous of you. I hear he’s single, but I don’t know how that can be when every single girl is fawning over him.” She caught sight of Jade’s face in the mirror. “Well, almost every girl.” She secured the last pin. “That’s it! You look perfectly dirty and helpless. Now for the costume!”

Jade slipped on the light brown dress and pulled the ends of her wig out of the collar. She looked at herself in the mirror and squinted. She appeared quite different with so little makeup, but with Amy’s smudgy streaks and contouring, Jade certainly looked the part of pathetic orphan girl. Amy came up behind her and patted her shoulders.

“You look amazing!”

“Don’t touch me.”  
Jade wandered to the other side of backstage to retrieve her script. Yes, she knew the part, but a little review never hurt anyone. She thumbed through the pages and glanced over the blue highlighting her cues and the green highlighting her lines. She paced around and practiced a few lines, toying around with her British accent. She started to read through the first scene again when someone tapped her shoulder.

“What?” she yelled as she spun around.

The boy behind her put his hands up and grinned at her. “Whoa, hey!” He paused for a moment, then he stuck out his hand and said, “I’m Beck.”

“I know.” She didn’t reach to shake it.

“I’m playing the part of William.”

“Are you planning on giving me new information soon? Because you’re boring me.”

Beck looked bewildered, but he also looked . . . amused? “I just wanted to tell you to break a leg.”

“Mine or someone else’s?”

He laughed. He laughed as if she’d been trying to be funny instead of serious. She narrowed her eyes.

“I’ve seen you in class. Your skits are good. I think you’ll do great.”

“I don’t need your encouragement.”

“Well, you got it anyway. Congrats.” He smiled again. “I’ll let you get back to practicing. See you out there, Elizabeth.” He walked away, and she glared after him.

“Ten minutes till showtime!” Mr. Turton shouted. “Last chance to review your lines, get a drink, throw up, whatever you need to do! If you’re in the first scene, I want you in the left wing in five minutes!”

Jade shook herself out, drank some water, ran through a few vocal exercises, and headed over to her spot. Beck flashed an obnoxiously white smile as she walked up beside him. She stared at him, expressionless, until he turned away.

Jade had been involved in community theater for years, but never had she seen anything like the quality Hollywood Arts put out. Sets and costumes were made by students, but they looked professional. The musical score had been recorded by one of the high-level music classes, and it could’ve been a real movie soundtrack for all anyone knew. Even the script had been written by a former student a few years back. Jade didn’t have to worry about technical mishaps or poor performances by her fellow actors, because everyone had worked hard to be here. This wasn’t a day camp theater anymore. This was real, and she . . . didn’t hate it.

The first and second acts went well. The story followed her character, an orphan in the streets of Victorian London, as she befriended and eventually fell in love with the son of a wealthy American bureaucrat. She pushed all of Jade away to become Elizabeth. She was going to pull this roll off perfectly and prove that she deserved to be here.

The third act came upon her quickly. In it, William found out that his family was moving back to America. Elizabeth had found out, and they were struggling to figure out what that meant for their budding relationship. The stagehands moved the props and created the most realistic cardboard bridge Jade had ever seen. She stood in the left wing, and she could see Beck preparing himself on the other side of the stage.

The music came on, and they both ran out onto the bridge and embraced each other. “I don’t want you to go,” she said as they pulled apart.

“Then I’ll stay.”

“How? Where?”

“I’ll stay with you.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I sleep in the mud!” she sobbed. “Because I could never be so cruel as to drag you down to my level!”

“Elizabeth—”

“You have to go.” She took his hands in hers and rubbed his knuckles. “Staying with me isn’t an option. Your father would never allow it, and . . . I could never allow it. I love you enough to let you go.”

“And I love you enough to let go of everything else. I’ll give up my friends, my family, my money, my home. Whatever it takes. All I want is you.”

“That’s not how it works. And you wouldn’t be happy.”

“I’ll be happy as long as you’re in my arms.”

“Trust me, William, it doesn’t matter who you have around you. When life becomes too hard, love turns out to be nothing but a farce.” She looked up at him. “I want what we have to stay real, forever.”

He looked at her pleadingly, and she stared at him until he glanced at the ground. “Then I must go.”

“Yes. But I’ll always love you. Forever.”

He put his hands on her hips, and she stepped closer. He leaned down and kissed her, softly, slowly. They drew apart after a few seconds, and someone in the audience whistled. They both turned to walk away, each keeping their eyes straight ahead. Then he turned and called, “I’ll come back!”

She started and spun around to look at him.

“I’ll come back one day! I’m going to get rich in my own right, and then I’ll come back and buy you a mansion and we’ll live there together. I promise, Elizabeth. I’ll come back.”

He ran off. She stood there a moment, took a few steps in his direction, then turned back and ran offstage with her face in her hands.

Jade marched down the steps with a smirk. She felt immensely proud of the scene she’d done. She could see some of the other actors high-fiving Beck on the other side of the stage. Amy was the only one who came up to her.

“Wow! You did it! I could tell that was an amazing kiss, even from here.”

“It was just a stage kiss.”

“But it was a stage kiss with _Beck Oliver_! Oh, I wish I was an actor.”

Jade stared at her for a moment, then loudly proclaimed, “Bye!” and walked away.

She still had a few more scenes, but the rest of Beck’s performance was done backstage via microphone in order to read the letters William sent Elizabeth, including the final one about returning to London. The curtain fell at the end of the scene, and Jade stood from her chair in center stage. All the rest of the actors came out to join her.

Beck took her left hand in his, and Mara, the actress who played Elizabeth’s best friend, took her right one. The curtain rose. Jade plastered an uncomfortable smile on her lips. The actors raised their hands together and bowed as the audience applauded. Groups of actors stepped out to take their individual bows and leave, and finally only Beck and Jade were left. They stepped forward. Jade curtseyed (ugh) and Beck bowed from the waist. They walked offstage in opposite directions as the house lights came up.

Jade pulled off her wig and cap and scratched violently at her head. She’d done it. Her first Hollywood Arts starring role. She took a deep breath and went back into the dressing room to pull off her dress and get back into a comfortable pair of jeans.

People congratulated her at every turn, but she either ignored them or said a curt, “Thanks.” She knew she had done well, and she didn’t require other people to tell her. She shouldered her bag and walked out into the hall. As she pushed her way through the throng of parents and friends meeting other actors, someone tapped her arm.

“What?” she yelled as she turned around.

Beck stood there, this time in a hoodie and ripped jeans instead of a Victorian-era costume. He had that stupid smile again. Why was he so weird? “You did a great job.”

“Ugh, will you ever stop saying obvious things?”

Beck shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “I’m just saying. I thought you were better than Melissa.”

“Duh. She spits too much when she talks.”

Beck made a face. “You’re telling me.” He glanced around the room. “So, is anyone here to congratulate you?”

“No.”

“Me neither.” He paused for a moment. “Well, congrats on your Hollywood Arts debut.”

“You too, I guess.”

“So, I was wondering if—”

“I’m bored and I’m leaving now.” She said it loudly before sauntering out the door. She’d played the part. She’d filled her role. Nothing else would make her want to stay in that school a second longer, especially not a conversation with a weird, stuck-up pretty boy.

XXX

Jade had promised herself at that she wouldn’t get distracted. Her parents had barely even let her attend Hollywood Arts, and her main goal at the school was to convince them they hadn’t made a mistake. She would focus on acting and music. She would not get distracted by anything, including friends, and especially including boys.

Scaring people off proved to be no hard task for her. She decorated her locker with scissors, wore all black, and made credible physical threats at every turn. Of course, she would’ve done those things anyway, but now it came with the added benefit of giving her focus on the things she really cared about. She’d never had more than three conversations with the same person. She didn’t want to. She was not at that school to make friends.

She “accidentally” threw a rock at the first boy who asked her out. (He asked her out on a dare anyway, so he deserved it.) Every kind soul who made an attempt to break through her scary girl exterior found an equally scary girl underneath. She’d perfected her death glare well enough that mere glances could send people running. She never let a conversation go the way the other person wanted. She twisted and challenged and sarcastically defeated every point they made. She found a strange kind of pleasure in it, though from time to time she did wish for friends.

Friends. She’d never made friends at school. Her only friends had come from community theater where freaks and outcast were equal and far too strange to not love. She had made good friends there, but even then “friendship” for her meant something different to her than it did for most people. Mostly it just meant that she’d found someone to tolerate her.

Jade didn’t come to Hollywood Arts for friends. She didn’t come looking for love or acceptance. She came for hard work and passion pursued. That came easily enough when everyone was too afraid to approach her.

So why on earth did he sit down next to her at lunch?

Jade sent Beck a death glare. That usually sent them running. He bit a French fry and met her gaze.

“What are you doing?” she said, crinkling her nose as if she smelled something rotten.

“Eating.”

“Why here?”

Beck shrugged. “You eat alone. I eat alone. I thought we could eat alone together.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard all week.”

He shrugged again. “Fair enough.”

Wait, Beck Oliver ate alone? Then it struck her that he did. She’d seen him a few times in passing. He always sat in a corner of the Asphalt Cafe with his back to the rest of the world. Oh, poor little pretty loner boy. She sneered at him and took a bit of her salad.

“Move before I stab you with a fork.”

“You wouldn’t do that.”

“Are you new here?” She shifted her grip on her fork for an optimal stabbing position.

“Nope. Been going here for as long as you.”

“Oh, so you’re just dense.”

“No. I’m just not afraid of you.”

Jade had never heard those words before. Not once in her entire life. They made her immensely angry.

She swung her fork out and aimed for his face. With reflexes much quicker than she’d expected, he grabbed her wrist and held it up above her head. He met her gaze and smirked. A challenge danced in his eyes.

Challenge accepted.

Jade pulled her other fist back and punched him in the chest. He gasped and let go of her. She stood up before he could recover, grabbed her salad, and stormed away.

XXX

What did she know about Beck Oliver, exactly? She knew that girls in the bathroom liked to giggle and talk about him. She hated giggling, so naturally she tuned out those discussions. She knew he walked around with confidence, which usually either meant an inflated ego or a seriously low amount of self-confidence covered up with an artificial inflated ego. Neither of those interested her.

Did she think Beck Oliver was hot?

Well . . . duh. Jade might be intimidating and entirely uninterested in dating, but she was still a female with eyes. Of course she thought he was hot, but that only strengthened her disdain for him.

Beck sat down with her again the next day. She reached down into her boots and pulled out her favorite pair of scissors, pointing them at him.

“If you try to speak to me, the locks are the first things to go.”

He seemed to take her threat more credibly this time, because he didn’t say a word during the whole meal. They ate together in silence as she tried not to look at him. He didn’t smile at her this time. Mostly he observed the world around them. Girls waved at him, but he hardly waved back.

Jade didn’t put her scissors away until after he’d left. She frowned and her face flushed with this new situation. _He’s probably playing some kind of trick on you_ , she thought. _Don’t trust him_.

Beck Oliver. A mystery. And, in her opinion, a freak. He was a great actor, one of the best in class. Not that she ever cared what he did, but she did remember holding a begrudging respect for his talent.

But she didn’t know him, and he didn’t know her.

She didn’t want to know the freaky, stuck-up, mysterious, pretty little loner boy.

XXX

Third day’s the charm. He sat across from her again. She threw an olive at him, but he merely dodged it and opened his food.

“Yesterday, I played by your rules,” he said. “Today, you play by mine.”

She snorted. “Fat chance.”

“It’s only fair.”

“I don’t play fair. Dude, why we you even here? You don’t know me.”

“That’s what I’m trying to fix. I want to ask you some questions.”

“Go. Away.”

“What got you into acting?”

“Shut up.”

“Do you have any siblings?”

“I’m plotting your demise, and it’s glorious.”

“What do you like to do for fun?”

“Cut things up with scissors.”

“Anything in particular?”

“Flowers. Clothes. Pretty boys’ fingers.”

“Sounds fun. Do you like to read?”

“Obituaries, yeah.”

“What’s your favorite class here?”

“Any you’re not in.”

“Are you single?”

Jade choked on her lettuce. She coughed several times and downed her water. Beck stared at her the whole time, his facial expression entirely passive. She sent him the best glare she could muster, and the most she got in response was a slightly raised eyebrow.

“Why would you ask that?” she hissed, coughing one more time into her fist.

He shrugged. “Just curious.”

“Uh-huh.” She stood, leaning over the table so her hair dangled in front of his face. “Look, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, pretty boy, but I hate games, so you better back off before you get hurt.”

He grinned for the first time that day. “Dude, it was just a question.”

“Fine. Yeah, I’m single, and that’s the way I like it. I’m not at this school to fall in love.”

“Same.”

She squinted and leaned back. “What?”

“There. We have something in common now.” He folded her arms and smiled at her. “I’m here to learn about acting. I’m not interested in a relationship.”

She sat down again and took a bite of salad. “But . . . why . . .”

He raised his eyebrows, prompting her to answer. When she continued to splutter, he laughed. “Did . . . did I just make you speechless?”

“No!”

“Look, I’m not trying to ask you out or something, if that’s what you think. I’m just trying to get to know you better.”

She took a deep breath to compose herself. He’d caught her off-guard, and she hated being caught off-guard. “Why?”

“You’re interesting.”

She frowned. “Was that an insult, pretty boy?”

He shrugged. Man, he did that a lot. “Wasn’t meant to be.”

“Well, I suggest you leave me alone before you learn just how ‘interesting’ I can be.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

He said it again. Never had words infuriated her as much as those. Her fury must’ve slipped into her expression, because he began to smirk again.

“You hate it when I say that, don’t you?”

“Shut up or I’ll—”

“What? Threaten me with scissors, or do you want to go back to the fork?”

She gritted her teeth. “I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate you.”

“Fine, I’ll shut up. I guess that’s the most I’m going to learn about you today.”

They spent the rest of lunch in silence. She glared at him for its entirety. He either ignored it or met it head on. They both continued to eat until the bell rang, at which point they stood up and he spoke again.

“Want to walk to class together?”

She walked past without looking at him. “Screw you.”

“No need to be rude.” He had a humorous tone.

She turned around and said while walking backwards, “Still don’t know me, pretty boy!” She marched off without bothering to catch a second glimpse of his smile.

Not afraid of her? Not afraid of _her_?! How could he not be afraid of her? Her fearsome personality was something she prided herself on. A single snap of her scissors could send any boy running. She never made an empty threat. She frequently talked about the most foreboding things in her mind—genuine interests that served to frighten anyone who stayed to listen. If Jade embodied herself in one personality trait, it was her scariness.

So what was she to do with the one person on planet earth who wouldn’t realize that?

XXX

She showed up late for lunch the next day because she had a conversation with her English teacher about an assignment. When she arrived at the Asphalt Cafe, Beck had gotten his food and was sitting off by himself. Two girls came up to talk to him, but he dismissed them. Jade grabbed her food and walked over.

“Hey, pretty boy. It’s my rules again today.”

He smiled at her. “I’ll be quiet.”

“Actually, it’s my turn to ask questions.”

“Oh?”

“Don’t read too much into it. If you’re going to bother me this much, I might as well know some things about you.”

“Ask away.”

“Snakes or spiders?”

“Uh, snakes, I guess.”

She chuckled and took a sip of her drink. “Wrong answer.”

“Well, I just think snakes are—”

“If you had to die by either stabbing or drowning, which would you pick?”

He looked confused for a moment, but it passed into a contemplative look before she could enjoy it. “I guess drowning.”

“Oh, wrong again!”

“I gave you my answer. How is it wrong?”

“Because it’s my rules today.”

He smiled. Would he ever stop doing that? She rested her chin on her hand and looked him over. She had had a plan about engaging him, but it was slipping away before her eyes. Her questionable questions seemed to be inspiring him. Time to be unpredictable.

“What are your interests?”

He looked genuinely taken aback. “Are you asking me a normal question?”

“My turn to ask, pretty boy. Interests. What are they?”

“Well, acting, obviously. I like reading, yoga, watching drag racing, dancing sometimes. But mostly I love acting.”

“Uh-huh.” Jade had another question forming in her mind, a much more personal one. She mulled it over for a second before vocalizing it. “Last week, after the play, you said you had no one there to congratulate you. Why didn’t you have someone?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Not today you can’t.”

He smiled again, but it didn’t seem as happy this time. “My parents were both gone on business trips. Besides, theater’s not really their thing.”

“Okay, that’s your family. But why doesn’t a pretty boy like you have friends? Why do you sit alone at lunch?”

He shrugged. Smile and shrug. He could at least be a little more emotive. “I have friends, just not any close friends. I’m working on it. I like knowing the deeper stuff, you know? More than just the superficial. I like to take my time getting to know someone.”

“You sure moved in on me fast.”

“Because you’re interesting.”

“So I’ve heard.” She narrowed her eyes. “Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

He—you guessed it—shrugged. “I’m just not afraid of anything, really.”

She snorted. “So I was right the first time. You are dense.”

He chuckled. “Nah, I’m just—”

“I changed my mind. I want you to be quiet now.”

He squinted. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Cut people off.”

“Because I get bored of listening to them. Like now. My rules, pretty boy. Shh.”

“Fine, I’ll be quiet.” He drew an invisible zipper across his lips and smirked at her.

Again, silence, but she didn’t enjoy it as much as she thought she would. She couldn’t understand this boy. She didn’t think she wanted to. Interesting? He only liked her because she was interesting? She was wasting far too much mental power trying to figure him out.

Beck finished his lunch before she finished hers. He nodded at her and got up without a word, just as she’d requested. She threw a crouton at his retreating back, but she missed and swore at herself.

After most of the other students had left, Jade buried her head in her arms. She was not at this school to make friends. She was not at this school to have ridiculously handsome loner boys eating lunch with her. She was not at this school for him, or for anyone else. She was at this school to make her dreams come true, and after thirty more seconds of running mysterious pretty boy run through her mind, she kicked him out for good and sought focus on bigger and better goals.


	2. Puppet Boy and Cupcake Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own Victorious or any of their characters. Mr. Turton is mine, as is the plot. Enjoy!

Jade walked into the Black Box theater and took a seat on the left side of the room.

“Don’t sit there!” Mr. Turton shouted.

“Why not?” she shouted back without moving.

The rest of the class trickled in, and Mr. Turton said, “Welcome, everyone, to Amateur Hour! I hope you had a productive weekend, and by productive I mean I hope you memorized your lines. Those playing the part of Agent Meiko, sit on my left, your right. If you’re playing Commander Irons, sit on my right, your left. Which means, Jade, move!”

“Ugh, fine!”

Jade scooped up her bag and moved to the other side. She had just settled into her seat when Beck sat down beside her. She didn’t look at him, and neither of them spoke a word. Maybe she shouldn’t have sat down with him at lunch last week. Maybe she gave him the wrong idea. She didn’t want friends. She didn’t need them. She’d gotten it in her head to tell him off when Mr. Turton began talking again.

“Perfect, we have a full class. This will go over excellently. So, all of you have memorized one of two parts. I’m going to put you into pairs to act out the scene. Now for the fun part.” Mr. Turton grinned and made his eyebrows dance. “If you didn’t notice, there was nothing in the scripts about _how_ to play your characters. Nothing about the _emotions_ you should be portraying. That’s because I’m going to give you your emotions now, and I’ll do it individually. See, the same scene can be acted in many different ways, and that’s what we’re going to prove here. But of course, the best way to learn is by doing.” He put two fingers on his lips and surveyed the room. “Beck. Robbie. Up here.”

Beck got up from beside her. A bespectacled kid on the other side the room stood as well, but before he walked up to the front, he removed a puppet from his hand and sat it on the chair. He seemed to say something to it before running up and taking his place beside Beck.

“I assume you both know your lines?” Mr. Turton asked. Beck and Robbie nodded. “Good. Beck. I want you to perform your lines _angrily_. The commander is your old friend, but you don’t care about that anymore. All you can think about is Sarah, and your anger is consuming your mind. Let it drive your words and actions. Don’t be afraid to get violent.”

“I’m sorry, to get _what_?” Robbie said with panic in his voice. Beck smirked and Jade rolled her eyes.

“Robbie!” Mr. Turton turned to face him. “Stoic. Impassive. The very _definition_ of commander. You care a great deal about your old friend, Agent Meiko, but you’re still his superior. You’re in charge, and I don’t want to hear a _hint_ of weakness in your performance. Understood?”

“I guess so, but I—”

“You’ll be fine.” Mr. Turton took a seat. “You all might have realized that there were very few actions in your script. Do what you think your character would do based off what I tell you. Feel free to add or drop words at your own discretion. The only thing I ask is that no one do anything that would get me arrested. Again. Beck, Robbie, places! And . . . action!”

Beck “entered” from the side and marched up to Robbie with a scowl on his face. “Where is she?” he yelled.

“I can’t tell you,” Robbie said back, his voice even.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Neither. You don’t have the clearance—”

“Tell me where she is!”

“No.”

Beck grabbed the front of Robbie’s shirt. Robbie’s facial expression didn’t change, but Jade saw a hint of fear flash through his eyes. “Tell me!” Beck shouted in his face.

“No!”

“Tell me!”

“She’s dead!”

Beck let go of Robbie’s shirt, and Robbie smoothed it out and stood straight. Beck’s face continued to harden. “You’re lying,” he hissed.

“It’s the truth. I . . . I’m sorry, Meiko. She died two months ago off the coast of Puerto Rico. I didn’t think it would be good to tell you. You were always so attached to her. Too attached. I thought that if you knew her fate, it would impact your ability to do your job. But you don’t have the right to come marching in here to yell at me!”

“I don’t regret it!” Beck snapped.

“Have you forgotten all we’ve been through together? London? Hong Kong? That undeclared location at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean? You’ve always been such a good agent, and Sarah—”

“She’s still alive.” Beck ran a hand through his hair and frowned. “I know her, and she wouldn’t . . .”

“But she did. So forget about her, Meiko! That’s over now.”

“Forget about her?” Beck raised his voice and repeated, “Forget about her?!”

“I’m sorry, Meiko.”

“No! You’re wrong. She’s not dead!”

“Meiko! Be reasonable! Stop letting your emotions get in the way here.”

“I’m not. All the logic in the world tells me she’s alive and you’re a filthy liar. I’m going to find her.”

“Meiko! I order you to stay put!”

Beck turned and stormed off stage.

“Meiko!” Robbie shouted. He dropped his head into his hands. Then he mined grabbing a radio from his belt. “He thinks Sarah’s alive. Ready a ship to take me to Puerto Rico. Hurry!”

“Scene!” Mr. Turton shouted, causing the students closest to him to jump. “Excellent!”

Robbie scurried back to his seat, and Beck sauntered back over to his place by Jade. He smirked at her as he sat as if to say, “Wasn’t that good?” She rolled her eyes in response. Sure, he was a good actor. But he came off too strong. If you wanted to be angry and intimidating, shouting is rarely the way to go.

“Good job, boys,” Mr. Turton said. “See, that’s one way to do the scene, but there are many others. Sometimes you might want to try a scene or character from a different angle, or the director will change his vision. These are challenges you’re going to face both on stage and in front of a camera. Being able to take the same words and apply new meaning to them is the mark of a good actor. Jade! Since you sat down in the wrong place earlier, why don’t you come up for the second scene.”

Jade leaned over as she passed Beck and whispered, “Watch how a good actor does it.”

He smiled and let out a soft, “Ooh,” in approval of the burn. Maybe he wasn’t entirely hopeless.

Mr. Turton’s eyes scanned his choices for Commander Irons as Jade reached the front of the room. His searching stopped at a girl with red-velvet hair and the laciest top Jade had ever seen. “Cat. Come play opposite Jade.”

Cat pointed to herself and let out a soft shriek. A few others nearby patted her as if to wish her well, and Jade took advantage of this girl’s fear to send her a fierce glare. Cat walked up to stage and stared wide-eyed at Mr. Turton. “Hi,” she said in an annoying, high-pitched voice. Jade could already tell she wasn’t going to like this girl.

“Cat,” Mr. Turton said to her, “this time, _you’re_ playing the angry one. You can’t believe Meiko’s insubordination, and you’re not pulling any punches. Think furious thoughts.”

“When my brother thinks furious thoughts, my parents call the police,” she squeaked.

“Yes, well . . . not that furious. Jade!” He rounded on her. He squinted for a moment and looked her up and down. “Gentle. Feminine. You’re not angry here, you’re desperate. You want to find your friend more than anything.”

“Really? _I’m_ playing the feminine one?”

“Yes. I’m trying to _challenge_ you guys. Now, get ready.”

Jade crossed the stage and took a deep breath. She could see Beck smiling at her out of the corner of her eye. Why she noticed or why she cared, she wasn’t sure. She thought she’d banished him—

“Action!”

Mr. Turton’s word cut through her thoughts, and she walked up to Cat.

“Where is she?” she asked in a small, plaintive voice.

“I can’t tell you!” Cat snapped back with a ferocity that took Jade by surprise for a moment. The red-headed girl had adopted a deeper voice, and Jade had to admit she respected her talent.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Neither. And you don’t have the clearance to come marching in here demanding things from me!”

“Tell me where she is. Please!” Jade clasped her hands.

“No!” Cat folded her arms and turned away. Jade tried to hurry back into her line of sight.

“Tell me!”

“No!”

“Tell me!”

Cat turned on her suddenly and shouted, “She’s dead!”

Jade staggered back. She let her eyes wander and her expression drop. “You’re lying,” she whispered.

“It’s the truth! She died two months ago off the coast of Puerto Rico. We all agreed it would’ve been a bad idea to tell you. You were always so attached to her. Too attached. We knew that if you knew her fate, it would impact your ability to do your job. But you don’t have the right to come marching in here to yell at me!”

“I don’t regret it,” Jade whispered, averting her gaze.

Cat sneered. “Have you forgotten all we’ve been through together? London? Hong Kong? That undeclared location at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean? You’ve always been such a good agent, and Sarah—”

“She’s still alive. I know her, and she wouldn’t let herself die like that.”

“But she did. So forget about her, Meiko! That’s over now.”

“Forget about her?” Jade sobbed. “Forget about her?”

“I’m sorry, Meiko.” But Cat didn’t really sound sorry.

“No! You’re wrong. She’s not dead! She can’t be!”

“Meiko!” Cat yelled. “Be reasonable! Stop letting your emotions get in the way here!”

“I’m not. I-I’m not. All the logic in the world tells me she’s alive and you’re . . . you’re a filthy liar! I’m sorry, Commander Irons, but I’m going to find her.” Jade turned to leave.

“Meiko! I order you to stay put!” Cat’s voice dripped with venom. Jade paused for a moment, but then she continued to walk off the stage.

“Meiko! Come back!” Cat yelled. She huffed, and then she pulled out the imaginary radio. “She thinks Sarah’s alive. Ready a ship to take me to Puerto Rico. Hurry!”

“Scene! Wow!”

Jade and Cat came together at center stage. Cat smiled at her, and though it held apprehension, Jade saw mostly sweetness. She nodded curtly to express her admiration.

“That’s how you do it!” Mr. Turton said to the rest of the class. “See? They each took the same character from the same scene and interpreted them a different way. That’s what acting is all about. You’ve got to let the emotions drive your words and your actions. Hmm. Tatum, Rachel, you’re up!”

“‘That’s how you do it,’” Jade repeated she sat beside Beck.

“Very well done,” he said. “I know I got to see you play ‘gentle and feminine’ in _Transatlantic_ , but I didn’t think lightning would strike twice.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, pretty boy.”

“Clearly.”

XXX

Jade sipped her coffee and scowled. It has reached that dreaded lukewarm state, and Jade hated lukewarm.

“Hey, West!”

She frowned and turned to see Beck standing behind her with puppet boy beside him. “How do you know my last name?” she asked.

Beck shrugged. “I’ve heard it before.” He sat down across from her. He pointed at the spot between them and said, “You can sit here, Robbie.”

“Are you sure?” he asked in a quiet voice, sending a fearful glance in Jade’s direction.

“Dude, don’t question it! Just sit!” the puppet said.

“Absolutely not,” Jade said. “Get lost, Bobbie.”

“It’s, uh, it’s Robbie. Thanks anyway.” He started to leave, but Beck grabbed his sleeve.

“No,” he said, shooting a pointed look at Jade, “Robbie’s sitting with us. My rules today.”

“We’re not playing that game anymore.”

“Yes, we are, and you know why? Because it’s my rules today. Sit down, Robbie.”

Robbie did so, and a few uncomfortable seconds passed. Beck had his arms folded on the table and his eyes locked on Jade, though she could hardly understand why. Robbie looked everywhere but at Jade, and he moved the puppet so it shook its head. Jade took a sip of the gross coffee and held it in her mouth a moment while she contemplated spitting it at one boy or another. Maybe the puppet. Why would a ventriloquist bring his puppet to lunch anyway?

“Jade, this is Robbie and Rex,” Beck said after a few moments. So the puppet had a name. A dog’s name at that.

“Hi,” Robbie said softly, still not meeting Jade’s gaze.

“‘Sup, hot stuff,” Rex said.

Jade pounded a fist on the table. “What did your puppet just say to me?”

“H-He’s not a puppet!” Robbie stammered.

“Ooh, the witch has got a temper,” Rex said.

Jade held up a finger and took a big gulp of coffee. Might as well put the disgusting muck to good use. She swished it around a bit before aiming at the puppet’s face. As always, her aim was true.

Robbie shrieked and she’s pretty sure the puppet cursed. Jade smirked, and Beck put his fist up to his mouth. He looked angry, but she was also positive that he was attempting to hide a smile. Robbie slopped napkins all over Rex’s face as he carried on a terse conversation with him.

“Why would you do that?” Robbie yelled once most of the liquid had been wiped away. It was the first time Jade had heard him raise his voice outside of playing Commander Irons.

“My coffee was gross,” Jade said in her best innocent voice.

“Maybe I should’ve used a different letter than w,” Rex said.

Jade started to pick up her cup again, but both Beck and Robbie shouted at her. She put it down and traced her finger along the rim. “If you have something to say me, don’t say through a puppet,” she said while staring at Robbie.

“I told you, he’s not a puppet!”

Jade glared at Beck. “This is too much.”

Beck smirked back. “What?”

“I’m not going to sit here and pretend the puppet’s a person.”

“You’re all kinds of rude!” Rex said.

Jade leaned down so she was level with his plastic eyes. “I’ve got one mouthful of coffee left, and after that I’ve got straight loogies. Don’t tempt me.” She sat up. “Screw your rules, pretty boy. Nothing is worth sitting here with this freak.”

“I’ll go,” Robbie mumbled.

“No, stay,” Beck said. He grabbed Robbie’s arm to keep him down.

“But I’m uncomfortable.”

“You’re always uncomfortable,” Rex said.

“I know,” came the timid reply.

“You only brought him here to annoy me,” Jade said.

“Really?” Beck snorted. “I can’t just have him here because I want to make a friend?”

“You’re saying that as if I care what you do. If you wanna go sit with him, whatever, I don’t care! But _I_ don’t want to sit by him.”

“Too bad. Both of you stay put, and be nice, Jade.”

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Jade shouted loud enough to attract the attention of nearby tables.

“I think I just did.”

Jade could feel her heart pounding in her ears. _How dare he_. Well, now she had a use for that last mouthful of coffee. She started to pick up the cup, but before she could, Beck reached out from across the table and took it from her. By the time she opened up her mouth to protest, he’d drunk the rest of it and put the cup back down.

“Ew,” Robbie muttered. Rex laughed.

“Now,” Beck said, speaking slowly and pointedly, “both of you stay here, and we’re going to have a civil meal together as acquaintances. Jade is not going to spit on anyone else, and Rex isn’t going to be calling anyone a witch. Deal?”

“Sure,” Robbie muttered.

“Hey, as long as there’s not gonna be more coffee in my eyes, I’m not complaining.”

They all looked at Jade. She unwrapped her taco and said, “I’m staying because I want to stay.”

Beck smiled at her, and a victorious twinkle danced in his eye. Oh, how she wanted to smack him. _Patience_ , she reminded herself. _You can get back at him later._

Though the beginning of their conversation was awkward, Beck and Robbie eventually fell into a halting discussion about improv. Jade contributed sarcastic snips here and there, but for the most part she spent lunch side-eying that horrid puppet.

At some point, Jade found herself wishing that she and Beck were alone. Not that she liked him all that much, really, but the game they played _did_ amuse her. And so far he was the only person to really make an effort to get to know her. Of course, she knew what was coming: He would try to find her “sweet side,” learn that it existed but was far smaller than he’d hoped for, realize that her mean girl persona was a personality and not a mistake, and then he’d leave. That was the way it always happened. But for the moment, she did—in the loosest sense of the word— _enjoy_ their banter, and puppet boy breaking it up gave her that awful yet glorious feeling where she wanted to stab something repeatedly. She wanted to say something snide about Beck’s hair, or maybe his acting earlier, but she couldn’t because he was paying too much attention to puppet boy.

Ugh. She didn’t like this. She didn’t like the insertion of this pretty boy into her life that was now forcing her to socialize with dweebs. She didn’t like his cocky smiles or the way he tried to control her. She didn’t like his lack of fear. And she most certainly didn’t like that he wasn’t his stereotype.

Beck should’ve been hanging out with all the populars. He should’ve been marching around school with a dull blonde draped on his arm and giving nerds wedgies. Instead, here he was, sitting with the meanest girl in school and a dork who thought his puppet was real. (Did that qualify as a mental disorder? She thought it did.) He could sit anywhere he wanted, and he sat here. He could have any friends he wanted, and he picked _Robbie_. He could be pursuing any lady his heart desired, but no, he didn’t want to date. And instead of even mildly using his charms, he chose to hang out with the girl all the other boys ran from because he found her interesting.

She hated this not-easy, un-stereotypical pretty boy.

The end of lunch bell rang as Rex was detailing his affinity for Northridge girls. All three stood up, and Jade made a point to walk past Beck.

“I hope you enjoyed your little game today,” she whispered to him. “Tomorrow, it’s my rules again.”

To her utter loathing, he smiled and said, “Can’t wait.”

XXX

English class finished, and Jade causally placed her books in her bag. Lunch was next, which meant seeing Beck—by her rules. If he wanted to play, she would play. She would play to win.

“Hey!” she called to the brightly dressed girl across the room. “Cupcake girl!”

The girl turned and pointed at herself. She widened her eyes, but she smiled. “Hi,” she said as Jade came up. Ugh, she had the high-pitched voice again. “You’re Jade, right?”

“Yeah. Cat?”

“That’s me! Cat Valentine!”

Jade raised her eyebrows. “That is not your name.”

Cat’s face fell. “It’s not? My mom told me it was.”

“That’s . . . not what I meant.” An airhead. Perfect. Jade had seen the way Beck interacted with other girls. He was polite, but mostly he was annoyed. He didn’t seem to go for the ditzy type. “You wanna sit with me at lunch?”

“Sure! I love lunch!”

“I think ‘love’ is a strong word for lunch.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cat said as she stepped back and looked wounded. Jade felt baffled—she hated it. Maybe this would be torture for her as much as for Beck.

“Just what I said. But you can love lunch, whatever. No skin off my nose.”

Cat giggled. “Why would I take skin off your nose, silly? Come on, let’s go.”

The two girls walked out of the classroom to the Asphalt Cafe. Jade had to admit that this was going better than she’d thought. She’d figured Cat would take a little more convincing, but hey, overly friendly people were easy. They both got ravioli from the Grub Truck and turned to find a seat. Jade spotted Beck almost immediately, as well as Robbie and Rex beside him. “Come on,” she said, grabbing Cat’s wrist.

“Ooh, where are we going?” Cat said, giggling a little.

“My rules,” she said to the boys as she walked up. “This is Cat.”

“Hi. I’m Beck.”

Robbie ducked his head and raised a few fingers for greeting. Jade thought she saw his face turn red.

“And I’m Rex,” the stupid puppet said.

“Hi-i-i!” Cat said, waving at them. “Oh, you’re both in Beginning Acting with Mr. Turton.”

Beck smiled. “He calls it Amateur Hour, remember?”

“Yeah, I think it’s fun. Oh, and I love the way his cheeks wiggle when he speaks.” She laughed and sat down.

Robbie snuck a glance at Beck and said, “Should I go?”

Beck opened his mouth to answer, but then he looked at Jade. At least he respected her authority on these days. She had a choice to make now. She did not like Robbie, not at all. But he looked extremely uncomfortable right now, and she did like his discomfort.

“No, it’s fine. Robbie should stay.” She smiled at, but he only gaped at her. “We’re all in the same class. We should probably get to know each other at some point, right?”

They all agreed. Perfect.

“Cat, you did a great job playing Commander Irons yesterday,” Beck said.

“Oh, thanks! I kinda tried to imitate my dad when he gets mad at my brother. Or me. He says I talk too much, but I don’t think that’s true. I mean, how can I be quiet when there are so many things to talk about, you know?”

Beck squinted. “I guess that’s true.”

“Like this morning, on my way to school, I saw a duck walking across the street. But, I knew that it was supposed to be a chicken, so I told it so, but it flew away.”

“Uh . . .interesting story.”

Good. Beck was starting to look miffed. Not angry, quite, but bemused. It was a start. The redhead ditz might just be good for something.

“Hey, Robbie,” Jade said after a few moments. “Why so quiet?”

“Oh, uh, you know . . .”

“He can’t talk to girls.”

“Rex!”

“What? We both know it’s the truth!”

“I . . . I can too talk to girls!”

“Prove it.”

The puppet looked towards Cat, and she grinned. Robbie met her gaze and swallowed. Jade sipped her soda and sat back, ready for the show.

“Uh . . . I like your hair.”

“Thank you!” She began to play with a strand of it. “My mom let me dye it this summer. I asked them if they could make it smell like red velvet cupcakes—because that’s why I dyed it this color, because it looks like that—but they said they can’t put smells into hair. I rubbed some cupcakes in my hair last month to see if I could do it myself, and it kind of worked, but then I showered and the smell went away.”

“Well, I think it looks good, even without the smell,” Beck said.

Cat giggled and twirled some hair around her finger. Beck smiled. _Smiled_. Jade’s stomach twisted. No. He was supposed to be as annoyed with Cat as she was with Robbie. That was how this worked!

“Yeah, it looks good,” Robbie mumbled. He turned back to his spaghetti and took the biggest bite he could.

“So, Cat,” Jade said, running a few dozen annoying conversation topics through her mind, “what’s your opinion on . . . uh . . . dogs?”

“I love dogs!” Of course she did. “They’re so cute and fuzzy and they always sniff my knees. One time my brother found a dog on our trip to New York, and he wanted to keep it, but it turned out that it was a rat.” She giggled and took a few bites of ravioli.

“Your brother sounds like a freak,” Rex said.

Cat gasped. “You take it back!”

“No, I’ve heard enough stories. He sounds screwed up.”

“There’s no need to be rude!” Cat frowned and folded her arms across her chest.

“Well, that’s not a pretty face.”

“Rex, shut up!” Robbie hissed to his puppet.

Cat grabbed her food tray and stood. “I don’t have to sit here and take this. I’m sorry, Jade. See you later.” She stormed off, and Jade put her head in her hands.

“Where you going, baby?” Rex called after her.

“Rex!” Robbie stood with Rex cradled in his arms. “I . . . I’m going to go too. I think Rex and I need to have a talk.”

“Aw, man,” Rex said as Robbie walked away.

That left Beck and Jade alone at the table. He had that same stupid look on his face that he always did. Blank. Just blank. Well, not entirely, because she could see the amusement dancing in his eyes. She scowled and ran a hand through her hair.

“That didn’t go how you planned, did it?” Beck asked.

“How can you stand them?”

“Maybe because I’m capable of caring about people?”

“No, they’re both freaks and you know it.”

“You’re right.” Beck reached across the table, stabbed one of her ravioli with his fork, and popped it in his mouth. “You know, you keep reminding me that I don’t know you, which is true. But you seem to forget that there’s also a lot you don’t know about me.”


	3. Bloody Temples and Dad Texts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of mean Jade in this chapter. You’ve been warned. I don’t own Victorious or their characters. I still own Mr. Turton, and I unfortunately own Dani and Lilly. The plot is all mine. Enjoy!

Beck, Robbie, Cat, and Jade. There couldn’t have been an odder group. All the others fit into their cliche cliques, but these four had found each other in the most random of circumstances. It shouldn’t have worked—and, to be honest, it didn’t.  
 ****

Jade still hated that stupid puppet. She fantasized about throwing it in a dumpster and lighting said dumpster on fire. Robbie bugged her. She wished he would grow a spine. Cat . . . wasn’t as bad as Jade thought she would be. Sure, she rambled, but it was the innocent kind of ramble. She said stupid things, but they were always inoffensive and even kind of cute. Jade could tolerate Cat. If nothing else, she tuned her out and let her go off about whatever topic her little cupcake heart desired.

And then there was Beck. Ugh. She still had mixed feelings about him. She liked their back-and-forth. She liked the way he could match her wits. So rarely did she come across someone who could challenge her remarks. And as much as she despised his lack of fear, she found that it resulted in some interesting conversations. He loved to push people to their limits as much as she did. She hated it. And she mildly enjoyed it. Mildly. She still didn’t like this un-stereotypical, not-so-loner pretty boy.

On Wednesday, they all sat together again. It happened without anyone questioning it, and it appeared that this could become the norm. The whole lunch was spent getting to know each other better. It helped that Robbie had left his puppet in his locker. Now Jade wouldn’t wind up punching something. Robbie and Beck learned that they both played guitar, and they got into an argument—although Jade would hardly call it that, considering both of them never even came close to yelling—about acoustic versus electric. Cat went off on a tangent about her favorite places with good acoustics. Her grandmother’s bathroom ranked on the top of the list. That tangent allowed Jade to get into a conversation about singing with Cat. Turned out the girl had some pipes. She sang a few notes for Jade, and then they tried a simple duet together. They performed well enough that people from the other tables clapped. Jade caught Beck smiling at her, but she ignored it. She knew she could sing. She didn’t need his approval.

So Wednesday went well. Beck had the rules, but he only brought that up once at the beginning of their meal. They were falling into a rhythm, her and him, and she wondered how long it would continue.

Thursday didn’t go quite as well. The whole Thursday, not just lunch. It was one of those days, Jade supposed. She hated those days.

First, Jade had to stay up late working on homework the night before. Her math teacher had decided that piling on as much homework as he could before Thanksgiving break was a good idea. She was up past midnight working with all the shapes and their properties (she decided she hated the trapezoid the most).

Second, Jade forgot to set her alarm. That happened from time to time. When it did, her mom always woke up fifteen minutes after six. She hated when her mom woke her up. She always leaned over her bed and either shouted or pushed her. Not cruelly, and she always apologized once Jade woke up. Jade was a heavy sleeper, and her mom had to expend a lot of physical effort to get her up. Jade hated the physical contact, as well as waking up to her mom’s perfume. And besides, that extra fifteen minutes pushed back her schedule enough that she didn’t have time to get coffee. That was the worst part. She had to show up to first period with no coffee, and as a result, she learned nothing. And she got a headache.

Jade had just enough time before second period to grab a coffee from the Jet Brew stand, but the exhaustion had already set in, and crankiness along with it. She made her way to the Black Box Theater for her Beginning Acting class. Yes, Mr. Turton called it Amateur Hour. He’d told them as much on the first day, and he’d referred to it that way every time since. He said the school wouldn’t allow him to officially name the class Amateur Hour because it was “demeaning.” Frankly, Jade agreed with Mr. Turton. Besides, the class was full of freshmen, half of whom would leave before the year was out because they would realize that they couldn’t make their dreams come true. A few had already quit. Jade loved it.

Jade took a seat in the back corner. Beck and Robbie were sitting up front, chatting away about something. She took a few large gulps of coffee and leaned back. Things were starting to get better now.

“Hi-i-i-i-i!” Cat said as she sat down beside Jade.

Ugh. Okay, that didn’t help.

“Are you always going to do that?”

“Do what?”

Jade cleared her throat and prepared to imitate Cat’s ridiculously high voice. “‘Hi-i-i-i-i!’”

“Well, I like to say ‘hi’!”

“It’s obnoxious.”

“Uh! Why are you being so rude?”

Jade stuck out her hand and said, “Hi, Jade West. Not nice to meet you.”

“We’ve already met, silly!” Cat said as she took Jade’s hand.

Jade rolled her eyes. She didn’t need this. She wanted to sit in the back today and absorb information and not talk to a soul. Cat’s voice was making her headache worse. “Just . . . be . . . quiet.”

Cat started to say something, but then Mr. Turton walked in and began class. Jade had never been so happy to see an authority figure in her life.

Mr. Turton was quite the character. His entire look was average: average height, average weight, average brown hair. But what he lacked in looks he made up for in personality. He’d been a director and producer of a few TV shows, plays, and short films for fifteen years before becoming a teacher to “pass on his knowledge.” Jade didn’t love him. He was a bit eccentric for her, although that shouldn’t be surprising for a Hollywood veteran. He was a good director with good acting tricks, so she ignored his quirks.

But he was loud. And irritating. And he called her up to use her as an example for several acting exercises. And then he had the audacity to call her out for “acting angry” in each one. As if she was acting.

Later that day, she got to lunch first. The coffee had kicked in by now, but her headache hadn’t gone away. She didn’t want to deal with people. She could feel the anger welling up in her, which she loved, but it always made her snap out at people even when they didn’t deserve it. Maybe Beck would lead the rest of the little group to another table. Maybe she would get lucky and get to sit alone. No, no, of course not. The three of them plus the puppet came up to her, and she groaned.

“Are you still in a bad mood?” Cat asked.

“Yes. Go away.”

They all sat down. She buried her head in her arms. She didn’t want this. She’d been socializing with them all week, and it was starting to take a toll on her. She couldn’t be nice or tolerable forever. They talked over her head for a few minutes, and then she felt a tap on her arm.

“Hey,” Beck said. “You okay?”

She picked up her head and looked at him. “Why do you care?”

He shrugged. “You seem down.”

“I’m sick of hanging out with you people.”

“So soon?” He smiled, but she could see the hurt in his eyes. He nudged her with his elbow, but she edged away. “Hey, it’s your rules today. If you want us to leave, we will.”

“We never agreed to any rules!” Rex said. Robbie shushed him.

Jade looked around at the three of them. How had this happened? Within two weeks she’d managed to attract three people and become . . . not friends, exactly, but they were almost there. She didn’t want friends. She didn’t want to concern herself with other people or their affairs. It exhausted her. It distracted her. It occupied too much of her mental facilities. She should keep her mind full of singing, acting, and schoolwork, because those were all that mattered to her. She didn’t like expending energy to be genial and conversational. She didn’t like it! She’d gone two months at this school without making friends or even acquaintances with a single soul, and then _he_ had to come in and ruin it all.

Yes, she blamed Beck. She blamed his stupid hair and his stupid kindness and his stupid calm attitude and his stupid pretty face. She hadn’t asked for this. He’d shoved himself on her. She didn’t want this! She hated this!

Jade grabbed her food and stood. “Stay here. Whatever. I don’t care. You guys have fun, but I don’t want to be friends with any of you.” She marched off. She didn’t know where she wanted to go, but she didn’t want to stay there. Her head was throbbing and she wanted more coffee.

A hand touched her shoulder and she turned to find Beck there. “Leave me alone,” she growled.

“Are you sure you don’t want to eat with us?” he asked.

“No. I want you to leave me alone. I didn’t ask for you to be nice to me or drag me into your stupid friend groups. Stop trying to control me!” She stepped forward, and he stepped back. He didn’t seem scared, though, only . . . disappointed? Man, she hated this. She hated getting emotionally involved with people and caring what they felt. She didn’t want to care. She didn’t want to know him.

Jade stood there for a moment, staring at Beck. He stared back. The rest of the cafe seemed to fade away and it was just her and him. Her, in her irrational, seething angry. Him, in his tepid calm. She hated it.

Then she broke the trance. She was hungry, so she walked away without another word. She wandered through the halls of the school, looking for a safe place to eat her sandwich. Students roamed around, but Jade just wanted a place to sit and be away from everyone else. She saw the door for the janitor’s closet, and she went it.

The smell of ammonia filled her nostrils. At least it was better than her mom’s perfume. She sat down in the corner and took out her sandwich.

Why had she even let this start? Why hadn’t she tossed him out on the first day? Why had she let him bring in Robbie, and why had she brought in Cat?

She’d been doing so well for the last few months. She’d been focusing on the things that mattered and scaring everyone else away. She’d fallen into a perfect pattern that resulted in her continued attendance at the school and being cast as the main character’s understudy in the first play of the year. She’d almost convinced her dad that she could do this.

Now.

Now she had stupid pretty boy coming in and messing up her perfect pattern.

Why did she even find him distracting? She’d had friends before that hadn’t distracted her from school or acting. She’d had guy friends and even boyfriends who hadn’t been as distracting as him. Why did he hold that kind of power over her? But that was the answer. He wasn’t afraid. He could . . . control her. In some strange, unexplainable way, his calm attitude always seemed to bleed into her and made her want to listen to him. He did that with everyone, she noticed, but she didn’t like when he did it to her. She wanted to scare him and make him do what she wanted, and when he didn’t, it distracted her. It made her wonder why he was so different. It made her wonder what would happen if they became friends, or what would happen if she tried to make an enemy out of him.

Jade didn’t see Beck for the rest of the day. They didn’t have any more classes together. Cat showed up at her locked at the end of school, though.

“Hi,” she said softly without drawing it out.

“Hey,” Jade said. “Look, you don’t have to hang out with me. I was really just using you to annoy Beck, and it didn’t even work. So you’re free to go hang out with whatever cheerleading group wants to adopt you.”

“No, the cheerleaders don’t like me. They say I have ‘too much pep,’ which seems strange to me because they’re the ones leading pep rallies!”

“Rejected by cheerleaders? Ouch. Then you know it’s bad.”

“Ooh! I like the design of your locker.” Cat reached up and began to run her fingers over the scissors glued onto the outside.

“You like it?”

“Yeah! It seems so . . . you!”

“That’s the point.”

Cat giggled. “No, silly, that’s the point!” She pointed to the tip of a pair of scissors and laughed. Jade furrowed her brows. Was this girl’s brain made of oatmeal?  
“Look, I’m serious, you don’t have to hang out or pretend to be nice to me.”

“I’m not pretending. I think you’re cool.”

“Thanks and all, but I don’t want friends.”

“Everyone wants friends!”

“Not me. Just . . . stop touching my scissors and get out of here!” Jade raised her voice, and Cat shrieked with her mouth closed.

“Okay, fine, I’ll go,” she said in a sad voice. “But if you ever change your mind, I have the best pillow for pillow fights at sleepovers.” She waved and walked off.

Jade felt a twinge of sadness. Cat was an overflowing cup of joy and sweetness, and it was so hard to be mean to her. But Jade wasn’t trying to be mean. She was trying to protect herself and her future at this school. She did not need more joy and sweetness in her life.

An hour later, Jade was home. She hurried into her room and locked the door. She didn’t need her mom coming in and asking how her day was or her dad barging in to tell her her dreams were stupid. She threw herself down on her bed and screamed into her pillow. She found it released a lot of pent emotions in a somewhat safe way. When she finished that, she found her favorite scissors and began to cut the edge of her bedsheets into strips.

She hated a lot of things, but she mostly hated being a teenage girl full of emotions she didn’t understand. Because she _liked_ that Beck could match her wits, but she _despised_ that he could keep up with her. Because she _liked_ that Cat was willing to be so nice to her, but she _despised_ her sweet and perky personality. Because she . . . well, she disliked Robbie, plain and simple. And she hated Rex. At least those two were easy emotions to sort through.

But Beck.

Because the way he had spoken to her at lunch . . . with concern . . . with a smile . . . with genuine friendship . . . because she liked that. Because she liked that in a way deeper than she could understand. Because for that moment, when they’d been frozen in the cafe, she’d looked into his eyes and wanted to stay. Because he had some kind of . . . some kind of effect on her that left her breathless and fuming and content all at the same time.

Her scissors ripped right through an old pillowcase, and she scowled and resorted to her natural state of hating all of it.

XXX

The conflicting emotions didn’t go away with a good night’s sleep, and Jade found herself just as cranky on Friday morning. She didn’t know what to do next. Should she start avoiding Beck and the rest of them? Should she tell them all off so they never talked to her again? Should she accept it and become almost-friends with a handful of people at her school?

Various plans sped through her brain as she entered school and sat through first period. She didn’t have anything solidified by the beginning of second, so she waited up until the moment class began to sneak in and take a seat in the back row. Robbie and Cat were in the second row, and Beck sat between them. None of them saw her come in. As Mr. Turton took the stage to begin class, Beck turned around and caught her eye. He smiled, and she sneered. Nothing else happened.

Second period let out, and Jade headed back to her locker to grab books for her next class. She had just closed her locker when two girls walked up to her. One was a long-haired brunette with her hands on her hips who was chewing gum with her mouth open. The other was a lithe Asian girl who shuffled her feet and twirled her necklace chain around her finger.

“Well, look here, Lilly, we’ve got ourselves a little goth girl,” the brunette said.

Jade pointed to herself. “I’m sorry, are you talking to me?”

The brunette laughed. “No, no! I was talking to _her_.” She gestured to her friend. “I was talking to her about how pathetic you look.”

Jade narrowed her eyes and her heart began to thud in her ears. She didn’t need this right now. She started to walk past, but the brunette stepped in front of her to block her path. “Where do you think you’re going, goth girl?”

“Dani!” Lilly hissed. “Stop! That’s _Jade West._ ”

“You’d better listen to your little friend there,” Jade said, widening her eyes and hoping the girl would get the message. Of course Jade had dealt with bullies before, including ones that dissed her appearance. She tended not to care all that much, but today her patience had the thickness of dental floss, and she didn’t want to snap.

“Why should I be scared of her?” Dani said to her friend. “She won’t hurt me. She’s just a poser.”

By now some other students had gathered around to watch. Jade didn’t even know who this Dani girl was, but clearly she didn’t know boundaries. “I don’t need to defend myself to someone who never learned how to chew with her mouth closed,” Jade said. The crowed around them let out appreciative noises. Lilly began to bounce on her toes.

“Seriously, Dani, stop. Everyone’s looking!”

“Good, then they can see me take this poser down.”

The crowd made the same noises. Jade closed her eyes so she could roll them back into her head. She did not want a fight. She did not want a fight.

“Did your mommy pick out those colors for your hair?”

Jade couldn’t walk away now. The crowd had closed in around them. She could feel her scissors in her boot itching to be removed.

“The only thing you’re missing is all the face piercings.”

She could pull them out quickly. She’d practiced it before. And the girl had long hair, so it would be easy to grab.

“You walk around like you’re so tough and scary, but you’re not. You’re not scary at all.”  
_I’m not afraid of you_.

It all snapped.

Jade dropped her bag, yanked out her scissors, and lunged for the girl. She tackled her to ground and began cutting at any strands of hair she could get her blades around. The rest of the school blurred away as a furious fit consumed Jade. How dare this girl, and how dare _he_.

A few pairs of hands grabbed her arms and began to pull her back, and she could see the same happening to the other girl. She lashed out one more time with her scissors, and she didn’t know what she hit, but she did hear a yelp. The hands pulled them both away, and then a single person hoisted Jade up over their shoulder. She screamed and kicked to get free, but it was useless.

The initial shock of the fight began to wear off as whoever was carrying her marched down the halls. She tried to stab the person’s back with her scissors, which were still clutched in her hand, but she couldn’t get a good angle. She tried to find out who was carrying her. It was a guy, but she couldn’t see him. Then she caught sight of his boots. She recognized those boots.

They reached the empty Black Box Theater, and he put her down and wiped the hair out of his face. Beck. Of course it would be Beck.

“What is your problem?” she screamed at him.

“My problem?” he screamed back, showing the most organic anger she’d ever seen from him. “What on earth do you think you were doing?”

“She was challenging me! I had to teach her a lesson! You had no right to drag me all the way back here!”

Beck shook his head, and then he pointed at her and shouted, “You could’ve hurt her!”

“I hope I did!”

“You’re insane!”

“Thank you! _Finally_!”

He threw his arms up. “‘Finally’? What’s that supposed to mean?”  
“You finally acknowledge that I’m different! You keep treating me like I’m normal!”

“When have I ever treated you normally?”  
“Oh, please! You eat lunch with me and introduce me to people and you . . . you’re not afraid of me!”

He lowered his voice a bit, but only a bit. “Is that what this is all about?”

She pointed her scissors at him. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, pretty boy, but you need to stop acting like you’re my friend. I’m not the friendly type. I’m _dangerous_ , you hear me? And not just because I give girls haircuts in the hall. You think you can show up in my life and start controlling me, but you’re wrong. I don’t want to play by your stupid rules, and I don’t want to sit here looking at your stupid face. _You don’t know me_ , and don’t give me that crap about wanting to get to know me, either. No, you don’t. I’ve seen your type before. You come into my life thinking you can change me, make me ‘better,’ but it’s not going to happen. This is who I am, and if you dig deeper, you won’t like it any better. You’re not going to make me nice or submissive or whatever you want from me.”

He shook his head. “That’s not what I—”

“Save it. I’ve only known you for two weeks and I’m already sick of you. Consider this your warning, because you don’t know what I’m capable of. Now, I’m going to count to five, and once I get there, you’d better be out of this theater and out of my life. One.”

To her horror, he folded his arms across his chest and took a step closer to her.

“Two.”

He locked his eyes on hers, that same stupid challenge dancing in them.

“Three.”

She held up her scissors, but he didn’t even flinch. Did he actually think she was bluffing?

“Four.”

The anger was coming again. He seriously needed to move, because she felt entirely capable of killing him.

“Five.”

He raised his eyebrows. She could feel her arms shaking in anger. That same zoned-out mood of pure rage pushed at the corners of her mind.

“There she is!”

Jade and Beck turned to see Dani, Lilly, and Lane, the guidance counselor at Hollywood Arts, standing in the door. Lane marched up to Jade and took the scissors out of her hand before she could react. “Come on, Jade,” he said. “Let’s go to my office.”

Crap.

“You got lucky this time,” she hissed at Beck as Lane pulled her out of the theater. His glared at her—yes, glared. Apparently he could do that.

Jade got a good look at Dani as exited into the hall. She could see a single spot of blood on her left temple, and her hair had been cut unevenly in several prominent places. Jade smirked, and Dani sneered. Lilly looked like she was about to cry. At least Jade had gotten something out of all this.

XXX

After the end of third period, Jade marched through the halls with one target in mind. She found him by the lockers where he was talking to a dark-skinned boy with braids.

“Hey!” she shouted from across the hall. Everyone nearby stepped out of the way. Beck turned to look at her, and his conversation partner took off running. Jade stormed up and shoved a finger against his chest. “I got detention because of you!”

He threw his hands up and scowled at her. No more did he possess that attitude of calm kindness. She’d broken something in him, and she couldn’t be more pleased. “How is that my fault?” he asked.

She knew she couldn’t answer that properly, so she ignored the question. “I wasn’t kidding earlier, and I’m going to get you back for this.”

“Get me back for what, exactly? Stopping you from killing a girl?”

“Exactly! You think you can just march into my life and make me do what you want, and that’s not going to happen!”

“I already told you, I’m not—”

“Oh, shut up! You’re so—”

“No, you shut up and stop interrupting me! You think _I’m_ controlling? You have to be in control of every conversation you have! And every time you think you’re about to lose an argument, your defense is to drop it. But that’s not going to work on me.”

“You wanna go, pretty boy? Lane might’ve taken my scissors, but I bet I could rip your hair out from the roots!”

“Oh, please, you’re not going to fight me!”

Jade let her backpack fall off her shoulder. “That’s exactly what Dani thought earlier. Don’t you pretty people ever learn your lessons?”

They stood there staring at each other when Lane’s voice cut through the students’ muttering. “Jade!” He came up and pushed the two apart, and Jade knew he’d seen too much. “You want a suspension on top of your detention?” he asked her.

“But he—”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Lane glared at her until she sighed and looked away. The bell rang, and students began to scatter. “Both of you, to your classes. Jade, I’ll see you in detention later. _Please_ don’t cause any more trouble.”

Beck and Jade glared at each other again, but then they both turned to go to their separate classes. As they walked away, Jade threw a glance over her shoulder to see Beck looking at her. He turned away quickly, but before he did, she caught the expression on his face. To her bewilderment, he looked not angry, but annoyed beyond belief.

XXX

Needless to say, she didn’t sit with him at lunch. Nor did she go looking for him again that day. She wanted to forget about him once and for all.

Detention didn’t completely suck. It gave her a chance to work on homework that she would’ve had to do at home—the home her parents lived in and where they could bother her at any time. At least here she had peace and quiet and a strange sense of security.

She had just finished up her geometric proofs when Mrs. Wesley, the teacher overseeing detention, said they were free to leave. Jade got her phone back from Mrs. Wesley and opened it to see six text messages from her father.

_The school just called me. I can’t believe this. How could you be so irresponsible? - “Dad”_

_You know the rules. I told you not to get into any trouble. - “Dad”_

_You think there won’t be consequences for this? You think you’ll just apologize to me and it’ll all blow away? Not this time, Jade. - “Dad”_

_I knew letting you attend that school was a bad idea. I knew you wouldn’t be able to handle yourself, especially there, with all those stupid artists. They’re influencing you in the worst ways. - “Dad”_

_You’re so disappointing. But I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything better. - “Dad”_

_I’ll be there to pick you up at five. Do not say a word to me when you get in the car. - “Dad”_

Jade had several minutes before her dad would show up. She walked into the hall and tried to decide what to do for the rest of the time. She walked over to the janitor’s closet, but it was locked. She took a few steps to the right and sat down against the wall. She tried to decide if replying to her dad would be worth it, but she ultimately decided against it. If she said something snarky, she would only get into more trouble, and she didn’t trust herself to say anything without sarcasm.

The tears began to push their way to back of Jade’s eyes. She knew they would come eventually, but she tried to stave them off. Her dad would not be happy with her. He’d be angry. Again. And of course, he was always angry with her, but this time would be even worse. This time, so much more was on the line. She stared at the texts and sniffed a few times.

“Hey.”

She looked up to see Beck standing there. Of course. _Of course!_ Would she ever get rid of him? She swallowed and tugged at the corner of her eye to hold back the crying for a few minutes longer. “What are you still doing here?” She said the words as harshly as she could and hoped he would vanish in a puff of smoke. “School’s been over for an hour.”

“I was helping some seniors with a short film.”

“Oh, look at you. Mr. Hotshot already, huh?”

He smiled. “Not really. I was just an extra.” He slipped off his backpack and sat down beside her, and she moved a few inches away from him. “You’re still mad, huh?”

“I am, but I don’t have the energy to fight with you right now.” She paused for a moment. “Aren’t you mad at me?”

“Why would I be mad?” His voice sounded tense, though. Jade smiled. He was still angry, if only a little bit.

“I already tried to kill you twice today.”  
“Well . . . I’m not happy with you. But I figured we’d both be cooled down a little by now.”

“Yeah, well, you’re wrong about that,” she snorted.

Beck sighed and pushed a hand through his hair. “Look, I just wanted to say . . . I’m sorry you got in trouble.”

“Sure you are.”  
“No, I am. I mean . . . I still don’t think you should’ve attacked that girl with scissors.”

“But she—”

“ _But_. . . I know Danielle. She’s in my French class, and she’s a real bully. She’d been picking on people all year.” He grinned at the floor. “In sixth period today she was complaining to us about you before class started, but when she turned around, everyone laughed at her hair.”

That did make Jade feel a bit better. She opened her mouth to say something else when her phone buzzed. She glanced down to see another text from her father.

_I’ll be there in ten. I mean it. Don’t say a word to me. We’ll discuss your punishment as soon as you get home. I already have something in mind. - “Dad”_

The blood rushed to Jade’s cheeks and left the rest of her body cold. Beck must’ve noticed, because he said, “What’s wrong?”

She scowled. “None of your . . . you know what? I don’t care.” She truly didn’t have the energy to fight right now. She threw the phone into his lap. He looked surprised for a moment, but then he picked it up and read the texts. He let out a low whistle as Jade ran a hand through her hair.

“Yikes,” he said.

“My dad hates this school. He . . . hates all of this. All the . . . the artsy stuff. I barely even got him to let me go here, and he told me I had to follow all his stupid rules about it. Not that I care about the rules at all, but”—she paused and bit her lip—“I care about this school. And now, thanks to you, he might pull me out.”

“I still don’t see how it’s my fault.”

She wrinkled her nose and turned away. It wasn’t his _fault_ , sure, but he was still the _reason_ she’d attacked that girl—in some roundabout way. He was the one who’d made her feel so many conflicting emotions in the first place. But how could she explain that to him?

“It’s my fault because I pulled you away before you could do something worse?” he continued. “Or . . . it’s my fault because I made you mad?”

She flinched. He was getting warmer, and she didn’t know how.

“But I don’t see how that could be—”

“You’ve been forcing me to socialize all week,” she spat. “And . . . and you’ve been making me act nice, so I guess all my anger built up inside and I just exploded.” It was kinda the truth. In a way. Maybe.

He laughed. “Oh, come on, that’s ridiculous.”

Her face flushed again and she felt like punching him. “So you’re calling me ridiculous now?”

“Why did you really attack her? It didn’t seem like you.”

“You don’t—”

“Know you. Yeah, I got it. But you didn’t answer my question.”

Jade sighed and pushed her hair out her face. She’d never met someone like Beck before, someone who seemed truly eager to listen even after she’d yelled at them. In fact, he’d seemed to brush their fighting off. He wasn’t scared, even after all her threats. She hated it. Or, she thought she did. Maybe . . . maybe it would be a good thing to have a friend who wasn’t afraid. Maybe . . . maybe he could understand.

Not yet, though. Jade wasn’t ready. “That,” she said, drawing out her words, “is none of your business.”

Beck sighed and hung his head. “Fine. I don’t want to fight with you. If it makes sense to blame me in your mind, then whatever. But I think I have a way to ‘make it up to you.’”

“Oh?”

“Come home with me.” Her eyes widened and she turned to stare at him. He chuckled and continued, “Look, if your dad is really this upset, maybe it would be good to give him some time to cool off. Tell your parents you’re working on a school project with someone. You could come back to my place and hang out tonight. Nothing weird, just to give your dad some space.”

The idea did sound appealing. Going home to her parents tonight would not be fun, and she was dreading the moment her dad pulled up to the school. Plus, it might be interesting to see Beck in his natural habitat. They could test the limits on this . . . whatever they had between them, and maybe she could learn a bit more about why he was so calm all the time.

Then again . . .

“I’d better not,” she said. “My dad’s already on his way, and he’d get suspicious if I told him about some new project now. Besides, putting it off is only going to make it worse.” She looked around the locked-filled hall and sighed. “I’ll miss this place.”

Beck nodded in understanding, then he picked up her phone and began to tap something on it.

“What are you doing?” she asked, moving to take the phone out of his hands.

He moved away from her grasp and said, “I’m putting my number in your phone. That way, if your dad does pull you out, you can still contact me.”

“I’m never going to use it.”

“You might surprise yourself one day.” He handed her back the phone and smirked.

“Ugh. You’re so annoying, you know that, pretty boy?” But she smiled when she said it.

Her phone dinged.

_Here. - “Dad”_

“I’ve got to go.”

They stood up together and stared at each other for a moment. He tipped two fingers from his forehead and smiled. “Good luck, West.”

“Yeah. See you around, Oliver.”

Beck walked down the hall. Jade allowed herself to stare at his retreating back. It might be the last time she ever saw him. Her phone buzzed with a second text from her father demanding that she come out immediately. She squeezed her eyes shut and enjoyed the last few seconds of peace before walking out the front doors. There was her dad’s car, parked right along the curb. She opened the door on the passenger’s side and slipped in. He didn’t even look at her. She followed his requests and didn’t say a word. They drove off, and she could feel the tears working their way back into her eyes.


	4. Red Wagons and Quadratic Equations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own Victorious or their characters, but Mr. Turton, these versions of Beck’s and Jade’s moms, Elijah, Leah, and the story are all mine. Enjoy!

Jade walked into school on Monday morning and took a deep breath. She’d never felt so insecure in her entire life. Some of the students turned to look at her and began to whisper to each other, but everyone else ignored her. So she’d acquired a reputation now. Fantastic. She was beyond caring at this point. Let people call her violent or crazy, whatever. What mattered most to her was that she’d been given a second chance by the most unmerciful man she’d ever met, and she could not blow it another time.

No one else knew what she’d been through over that weekend. No one else had heard her dad yelling at her, threatening to take her out of Hollywood Arts, to confiscate her scissor collection, to kick her out of the house. (The last threat had been made in something of a jest. Her dad wouldn’t risk the potential trouble with the law.) Yet here she was, and all the ignoramuses around her hadn’t a single clue.

All but one.

Beck stood in front of his locker straight across from the front doors. He caught her eye, and a smile slipped across his face. Okay, maybe she was starting to understand why so many girls fell for his charms.

Jade shouldered her bag and walked toward him. He met her halfway, at the base of the stairs. “You’re here,” he said.

“Congrats, you have working eyeballs.” She bit her lip and glanced around. “Yeah. I’m staying. For good, hopefully.”

“How’d you manage to swing that?”

“I told my dad that if he pulled me out and put me in another school, I would purposefully get bad grades, never go to college, and spend the rest of my life mooching off of him.” She smirked. “I guess it worked.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re staying.”

“Oh, are you now?”

The bell rang. They held each other’s gaze for a moment before heading off to their own classes. She felt oddly light. Something about having a friend who cared made her feel . . . _almost_ warm inside. _Almost_. She didn’t like the mushiness of it all, but it felt good to have someone who could smile at her.

Not that she would ever admit any of that out loud.

Second period came fast, and Jade didn’t protest when Beck sat beside her. Everyone else around them seemed a little shocked. By now the entire school had heard the threats she’d made against him in the hall on Friday. No one had expected him to forgive her so easily. She didn’t expect it herself. Then again, based off what she knew of his character, it shouldn’t shock her, although she was still of the mindset that his lack of fear stemmed from stupidity and not bravery.

Cat sat down next to Jade, but she did it gingerly. “Hi,” she whispered. “Are you still angry?”

Jade rolled her eyes and tapped her pinky against her coffee cup. “I’m always angry.”

“Oh. Well, uh, is it okay if I sit with you?”

Before Jade could say anything, Beck piped up. “It’s fine, Cat.”

“I thought I had the rules today,” she mumbled. Beck heard and grinned to himself.

A few seconds later, Robbie came and sat down beside Beck. Jade folded her arms across her chest and leaned back into the chair. She had been entirely flanked by friends. How? What magic spell had pretty boy cast on her to make her okay with this?

“Welcome to Amateur Hour!” Mr. Turton said as he entered the room. He had an umbrella in his hand, and he leaned on it slightly once he reached the front and began to talk. “This week is going to be very involved, so I’ll get right into it. I want to teach you all about using props. I’m going to put you all into pairs, and together you’ll write a short scene involving a few props that you’ll pick at random. You’ll perform the scene in full for me on Friday, and the three best will get to perform their scenes during lunch next Monday.”

Jade pulled out her notebook and jotted down notes as Mr. Turton spoke, as did most of the rest of the class. “The scene should be three to five pages long. It can be in any genre you want, but I may dock points if you chose comedy. No one likes prop comedy. You’ll pick three random props that must be incorporated into your scene. They must significant, and at least one should impact the story’s resolution. At least one actor must touch each prop at some point. Follow the basic rules of storytelling. Your scene must have a beginning, middle, and end, and consider adding some interesting twists.” He swung the umbrella around and stabbed it back onto the floor. “Pairs! Melissa and Rachel, Zachary and Cat, Robbie and Tatum, Beck and Jade . . .”

Beck elbowed her. “We’re partners.”

“I heard, numbskull.”

Mr. Turton rattled off the rest of the teams, and Cat and Robbie left to find their partners. Mr. Turton reached over and picked up a top hat from one of the chairs as everyone moved. “Each pair, send up one person to pick your props. You’ll draw them randomly out of the hat.” He waved it around and grinned. “We’re going classic!”

“I’ll go up,” Beck said, starting to stand.

“No, I will,” Jade said, pulling him down and standing up instead.

“No, it’s fine, I can do it.”

“It’s not that big of a deal.”

“I know, so why are we arguing about it?”

“I don’t know, why are we?”

“So just let me go up.”

“No, I’m going up!”

“Fine!”

The entire conversation happened through gritted teeth and over a handful of seconds. Jade marched up to the front and stood with her arms crossed. Mr. Turton came up to Cat first. “Pull out three,” he said, waving the hat around in front of her. Cat obliged and pulled out three slips of paper. She looked at them and giggled. “Read them aloud,” Mr. Turton said.

“Okay. Okay, okay.” She giggled again. “Paint brush, ice cube tray, and carrots.”

Zachary, a skinny boy with far too little hair, clapped his head into his hands and groaned. Cat ran over and sat beside him, shoving him gently with her hand and telling him it would be fun.

Robbie’s partner, Tatum, went next. She pulled out newspaper, plastic fork, and CD. “How are we supposed to do this?” she asked Mr. Turton.

“You’re all in this school because you’re creative. You can figure it out.”

“Yeah, but I have to figure it out with the dumb puppet kid,” she grumbled as went to sit down.

A few more students went, each taking slips of paper and subsequently questioning how they could possibly make a scene involving their items. Mr. Turton finally came to Jade and held out the hat.

“I’d better get scissors,” she said as she grabbed hold of some papers.

“Oh, that would’ve been a great prop! I’ll have to keep it in mind for next time.”

Jade opened her papers and read, “Wagon, pajamas, and tissue box.” Whoa. She hoped Beck had a good imagination. She walked over to him and made a face. He shrugged.

“That’s not so bad.”

Once he’d finished that, Mr. Turton broke into a short lecture about the use of props in acting. He only spent ten minutes on the speech before saying, “We’ll spend the rest of class working on your ideas for your scene. Break up into your pairs and spread out. Get a rough draft going, and work on it after school today. You’ll read me your rough draft tomorrow, so everyone should exchange either addresses or phone numbers. Oh, one more thing! If you can, please provide the props yourself. If for whatever reason you can’t, let me know by the end of the day, and I’ll take you back to our prop department. Start planning!”

Beck stood and motioned to the corner of the room. Jade followed, and they both plopped onto the floor and put notebooks on their laps.

“My neighbor’s daughter has a wagon,” he said. “I bet she wouldn’t mind if we borrowed it.”

Jade nodded. “Good, at least you can contribute something.” He rolled his eyes, but she ignored him. “Which of us should wear the pajamas?”

He shrugged. “I don’t even own pajamas. I usually just wear a t-shirt to bed.”

“Wait, _just_ a t-shirt?” He scrunched up his face, and she shuddered. “Ugh, I’ll wear the pajamas.”

“Good call.”

“So . . . I was thinking we could do a tragedy. Tissues are sad, and the wagon could represent lost childhood.”

“Cheerful.”

“You don’t like it?” she snapped.

“No, actually, I think that’s good.” He jotted down a few notes. “What should our characters be?”

“One of us could be a kid, and other could be a parent. Or . . . something like that.”

“We could be a mom and a dad, or some kind of couple.”

“I was already your love interest once, and I don’t want to do that again.”

He flashed her a teasing grin. “Oh, come on, you loved it.”

She snorted. “You wish.”

He sighed. “Never mind, then. We could both be kids.”

“Or you could—”

“Hello, Beck and Jade,” Mr. Turton said as he walked up. He pulled a chair over and sat backwards in it. “You two had the pajamas?” They both nodded. “Perfect. Who’s wearing them?”

They looked at each other. “Apparently me,” Jade said.

“Wrong.”

“Wrong?”

“The items you have are _props_ , not _costumes_. The pajamas must be part of the story; something you use, not just something you wear. If you can find a way to make them important _and_ wear them, you may, but I’m trying to save you from having to show up to school in pajamas on a random Tuesday in November.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“Good. As you were.” He left, and Beck met Jade’s eye.

“I guess that settles that.”

Jade pursed her lips. “You know, I bet I could borrow pajamas from my brother. My mom bought him these fire truck ones last month, but I cut slits into the sleeves and now he won’t wear them.”

“How old’s your brother?”

“Five.”

“Little kid PJs and a wagon. Sounds good.”

“I could cut up the clothes a bit more and we could go with a dead child route.”

“Dark.” She gave him a look, and he added, “But I like it.”

They went back and forth on a few more ideas for the rest of class. By the end, Beck had three pages full of notes, but no clear structure. They needed a stronger outline before they could even begin to write a script.

“Is that offer to go to your place still open?” Jade asked. She felt strange saying it. She disliked going to other people’s houses, even for school projects.

“Yeah. You wanna come over after school?”

Jade groaned. “Wait, I forgot, I have detention today.”

“So? I can wait for you.”

“I won’t be done until almost five.”

Beck shrugged. “Then I’ll get a head start on my homework and tell my mom to pick me up late. You’ve either gotta come over or we have to video chat or something, because we’ve got a lot left to do.”

“Fine. I guess you’re better than my dad, anyway.”

“Cool.” The bell rang, and they both gathered their things. “I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Yeah, bye.”

XXX

They ate lunch together with Cat and Robbie, but nothing interesting happened. There was no mention of the rules—even though they were Jade’s today—and they mostly just rambled about their prop scenes or other homework. Nothing exciting.

Detention was equally as boring. Jade got though as much homework as she could and jotted down a few more ideas for her and Beck’s scene. They’d have to finish a rough draft by the end of the night, and she wanted to be on top of it. She had some good ideas forming in her head, if Beck would agree to them. (She would make sure he did.)

Beck was standing outside the classroom after Mrs. Wesley let them out. He gestured down the hall with his head and said, “My mom’s parked out front. You ready?”

She was, and they made their way out of the school. Beck slid into the front seat beside his mom, and Jade climbed into the back.

“Mom, this is Jade, the girl I texted you about. She’s in my acting class.”

“Hi, Jade,” Mrs. Oliver said, turning around briefly to flash a smile at her. Well, now Jade knew where Beck got his infectious grins from, although hers looks more stressed than his. Her smile was surrounded by wrinkled tan skin and complemented by dark but quickly greying hair. “I’m Joanna Oliver.”

“Hi.” Jade gave her a stiff smile. She was not entirely rude.

The ride back to the Oliver house was silent. Beck spent the whole time scrolling through his phone. Mrs. Oliver looked wrapped up in her own thoughts, and occasionally she mouthed words to herself. Jade resorted to watching the LA landscape roll by, switching her gaze back and forth from the mansions on the hills to the cramped, single-story homes below the freeway.

They pull up to Beck’s house soon enough. “I’ll get dinner going,” Mrs. Oliver said as they got out. “Are you okay with chicken nuggets, Jade?”

Jade shrugged. “Sure.”

She started to follow Mrs. Oliver through the back door, but Beck said, “Where are you going?”

“Inside?”

Beck smirked and motioned for her to follow. He took her across the driveway to an RV parked in front of the garage. “Why are we—” she tried to say, but he shushed her. He took keys out of his jacket pocket and opened the door. They entered into a fully decorated living space, complete with a bed and a couch. He flopped down on the later and smiled at her.

“Welcome to my home!”

“You’re serious?”

“Yeah. I moved out into this place over the summer. My dad got this RV a while ago, but I—”

She held up a hand. “I’m not interested in your life’s story.” He retained his smile, but he shut up. She looked at the shag carpeting covering the floor. “I hate your carpet.”

“Thanks for the input?”

They stayed silent for a moment. She took in his decorations, none of which were shocking for a teenage boy. He grabbed his laptop and opened up a new document.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“What?”

“I’m sorry. Don’t make me say it again.”

“Don’t worry, the carpet’s not my favorite thing about this place either.”

“Not about the carpet, dingbat. I’m sorry for threatening you on Friday. You were . . . just an easy target, I guess. But you’re already acting like you forgave me, so I figured I might as well apologize.”

“Huh. Impressive.”

“Don’t start expecting it.”

“It’s all good. Just don’t make me break up any more of your fights, please.”

“No promises.”

“I figured. Now, we’ve got a script to work on. Come, sit.”

Jade sat down and pulled her notebook out of her backpack. Beck had done the same, and they compared some of the notes they’d taken during the rest of the day.

“I was thinking something suburban,” Beck said. “Then we can incorporate characters who wouldn’t be expecting something terrible to happen.”

“We’re still going with the dead child motif?”

“I think it’s a good idea. The props can be clues.”

“I think our setting should be a forest. At night. Dark, creepy.”

“Our characters could be looking for a child, and then they find out that he’s been killed. The resolution could be that they find out what happened to him, but we could have a cliffhanger, or an ambiguous ending.”

“Hmm. And here I was thinking I’d have to shoot down all your ideas.”

He didn’t totally smile this time, but she saw the corners of his mouth quirk as he typed a few lines onto the screen. “Let’s just get something out. This is a first draft, so we can fix it later.”

They spent the next hour typing up and polishing their scene. Beck’s mom came in at one point with a plate of chicken nuggets, and they ate while they brainstormed. They accomplished quite a bit in not a lot of time. Jade was surprised how well they played off of each other. Though he shot down some of her more morbid ideas, he seemed accepting and even approving of her desire for darker themes. His input helped her individual concepts take shape and become a tangible story. She . . . had not expected that.

It was almost seven o’clock when they finished. Though their script was far from perfect, they had churned out something that would work to give to Mr. Turton in the morning. Beck printed out three copies and went into the house to retrieve them. Jade slid onto the floor and sat cross-legged, and then her phone buzzed.

_Why aren’t you home yet? - “Dad”_

Jade groaned as Beck came back into the RV.

“What’s wrong?”

“My dad.”

_I told you, I’m doing homework at a friend’s. - Jade_

Ugh. Her dad had made her call Beck “a friend.”

“Oh.” Beck didn’t look like he knew how to respond. He sat down beside her. “You . . . don’t like him very much, do you?”

Jade snorted. “He’s an unfeeling, sociopathic dirtbag.”

“Whoa.”

“It’s true. He doesn’t like me, I don’t like him. Whatever. That’s the way it goes.” She met his gaze. “What about you? You’re not even living with your parents.”

“No, my parents are great. We just . . . don’t always agree on things. But that’s as much on me as it is on them. My dad’s always busy and he’s just . . . distant. But that’s him. He’s not a jerk or anything.”

“Your mom seems nice,” Jade muttered.

“She is.” Beck sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “She gets . . . difficult sometimes. It’s not really her fault, though. She . . .” Beck trailed off and cleared his throat. “What about your mom?”

Jade began to fiddle with her fingers. “I hate her.”

“Geez.”

“Not as much as I hate my dad. She’s . . . weak.” Jade swallowed. “Why am I talking about this with you?” She felt a prick of anger in her heart, and she grasped onto it. “I don’t even know why I showed you my dad’s texts on Friday. This is . . . this is none of your business.”

“Maybe. But everyone needs someone to confide in, right?”

They stared at each for a moment. Jade edged away and opened her backpack. “Do you mind if I stay for a little bit longer? I want to make my dad sweat it out.”

“Sure.” Beck sounded a bit disappointed. Well, if he had expected her to open up her heart and pour out her soul to him, then he should be disappointed. It was too weird. She barely knew him, and she didn’t want to know him. Sure, maybe he wasn’t as bad as she’d first thought. Maybe she was even starting to open up to him a bit. Maybe she was starting to like him, or at least, she was starting to tolerate his presence. That was a better standing than most people achieved.

They both pulled out papers and books and began their homework. Jade climbed up onto the couch while Beck remained on the floor. They didn’t interact with each other at all, and for a while there was nothing but the sound of scratching pencils and flipping pages. Jade had finished most of her homework in detention, and all that remained was an English worksheet regarding their book. Their book, which just so happened to one that Jade hated.

“You’re reading _Pride and Prejudice_?” Beck asked after he looked at her for the first time in several minutes.

“Yeah. It’s horrible.”

“Horrible?”

“Uh-huh. It’s like a written soap opera.”

“I don’t think it’s that bad, but I do think _Jane Eyre_ is better.”

She snickered. “You’re comparing, which means you’ve read both of them.”

“They’re classics!”

She leaned over and glanced at his worksheet. “What’re you doing?”

He groaned. “Math. I’ve been stuck on this problem for ten minutes.”

She leaned closer and looked at the problem. “X squared minus x minus forty-two equals zero,” she read aloud. She leaned back again and ran the numbers through her brain.

“Yeah. I can’t figure it out.”

“The answer is x equals seven or negative six.”

Beck turned and stared at her. “Seven or negative six?”

“Yeah.”

“Which one?”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Are you serious?” She could tell by his expression that he was. “Ugh.” She slipped off the couch and took her place beside him, grabbing the pencil and paper out of his hand. “It’s easy. Look, since the first number in the quadratic is one, you need two numbers that are going to multiple to give the last number of the quadratic, but will add to give you the second number of the quadratic. We know their signs are different, because the last number is negative. Seven times six is forty-two, and seven minus six is one. Negative seven minus six is negative one. So x minus seven times x plus six equals zero. Set both equal to zero, and we get the answer as seven or negative six. Both are valid answers. Solve it yourself if you don’t believe me.”

Jade threw the paper back onto his lap, but he didn’t even acknowledge it. He only stared at her with his mouth agape, and it took merely a handful of seconds before she wanted to smack the stupid look off his face.

“How’d you figure that out so quick?”

“It’s not hard. You didn’t learn this stuff?”

“I did, but . . . the math teachers at an _arts_ school aren’t exactly the best. But . . . you did that without even writing it down.” His incredulous expression gave way to a grin. “So, you’re some kind of math genius, huh?”

“No, ew, gross.”  
“Then how are you so good?”

“Because I have to be. I already told you, my dad is only letting me go to Hollywood Arts if I get good grades. I’m already in geometry. I’m not a nerd, okay, I’m just . . . a survivalist.”

“How dramatic.”

She groaned. “Okay, so now you know one of my biggest secrets, I guess. Happy?” She stood and gathered up her things. “I’m done with homework, so I really don’t have an excuse to stay longer.”

“You could help me with mine.”

“No, and if you value your life, you’ll never ask me for math help again. I’m not your tutor.”

“Hey, you solved that problem for me of your own free will.”

“Yeah, but only because you’re so pathetic.”

He laughed. Ugh, why did he find her insults so funny? And why did she like to hear him laugh?

“Do you need my mom to drive you home?”

No. Riding in a car meant she would get home faster. “I’ll walk.”  
“Are you sure? It’s dark out.”

“I like walking in the dark. Besides, it’s not that far.” It was a bit far. At least a twenty minute walk if she picked up the pace. But he didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know that she wanted those twenty extra minutes of solitude before she had to face her parents.

“Okay. If you’re sure.”  
“I am.”

“Don’t forget your copy of our scene. See you in the morning. And bring the pajamas!”

“I will. Bye.”

Jade stepped out of Beck’s RV into the cool night air. It was frigid already, but she didn’t mind. The cold wind embraced her like a sweet kiss of death and carried her along down the street and all the way home.

Her dad greeted her when she entered the kitchen. “You’re home late,” he said.

“I told you where I was. I had an important group project.”

“Is that all you were working on?”

“Maybe a bit of homework. He—”

“He?”

“Oh my gosh, Dad!”

“You weren’t working on a project, were you?”

She let out a nonsensical scream and pulled their script out of her bag. “I was not making out with him or doing whatever your disgusting mind created! This is our script that we were working on, the one that took all evening.”

He jabbed his finger onto the paper and said, “You’d better be telling the truth. I _hate_ your school, but as long as you’re there, it has to be your top and only priority.”

“Really? I didn’t pick up on that from our hundreds of other conversations exactly like this.” She yanked the paper out from under his thumb and saw the ink smear. Great. “I’m going upstairs. Goodnight.”

He didn’t even respond. He only went back down the hall to his office. She stormed up the stairs. Her mom stood at the top of them, her expression grim. “Hi, Jade.”  
“Yeah, hi. Is Elijah in bed?”

“No, not—”

Jade threw open the door to her brother’s room. He stared up at with wide eyes and whimpered. “I need your pajamas,” she said as she rifled through his dresser.

“Jade!” her mom said as she came and stood in the doorway.

“It’s for a scene I’m doing tomorrow, Mom. I need those fire truck pajamas.”

“Oh.”

“Found them.”

“Well, at least they’re going to good use.”

Jade walked out without another word to either of them. She heard her brother whimper again and her mom’s soothing mutterings.

Yes, Jade hated her mother. She hated how weak her mother was. She hated that she was still married to a narcissistic sociopath who took advantage of her and her children. Jade hated that her mother had never once had the spine to stand up for any of them. And while she did hold a grudging sort of love for her brother, he had way too much of their mother in him to allow him access to Jade’s full love.

Jade slammed her bedroom door and flopped down onto her bed. She pulled out her favorite scissors and began to shred Elijah’s pajamas further. She kept going until they were tatters but still sturdy enough to not fall apart at the touch. She put them beside her bag for the morning and got ready for bed.

XXX

One in the morning. Jade slept on and off all night, but had woken up fifteen minutes ago and could not fall back asleep. The stress of the weekend had caught up to her. As much as she didn’t like or respect her father, his words—and sometimes actions—still scared her. She knew that he held the power over her future, and that the future she wanted for herself was drastically different than the one he wanted for her.

Add into all those terrifying emotions the newfound respect and appreciation for a certain pretty boy, and it was a recipe for disaster and sleeplessness in her cold, bitter heart.

Jade pulled up her laptop and watched a few SplashFace videos, but she couldn’t take her mind off of everything that had been happening over the last few weeks. She felt ready to explode. Beck’s words ran over and over in her mind: “Everyone needs someone to confide in, right?”

She checked the clock. 1:14 a.m., which meant it was 3:14 a.m. in Minnesota. Jade took a deep breath and sent a video chat request to the one person she knew who would be up at this hour. It rang a few times, and then the screen transitioned to an image of a young teenage girl rubbing her hair with a towel. “Jade!” she squealed. “Hey! I just got out of the shower. It’s so good to see you!” She sat down in her desk chair, her wet brown hair clinging to her cheeks.

“Hi, Leah.”

“Whoa, isn’t it, like, one in the morning there?”  
“Yeah. I couldn’t sleep.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t have to be at the rink for another hour. You wanna chat?”

“No, I called you because I wanted to order a pizza. Yes, I want to chat.”

“Oh, good! I’m sorry I haven’t been able to talk much. I’ve been busy with competitions and practice and, of course, school. And moving. We finally got our house last week. Yay! I’d take you on a tour, but my family’s still asleep.”

“It’s cool. I just wanted to talk, anyway.”

“So, how did the play go? I can’t believe you actually got to play the part. That never happens to understudies.”

“I know. It was great.”

“How was your big debut, then? Was it exciting? Oh my gosh, I’m so jealous of you. I wish we could’ve gone there together!”

“I know, but your parents just suck.”

“Ah! Take it back!”

“Fine, fine. They’re all right. But they shouldn’t have made you leave.”

“I don’t know. Yeah, it’s cold here, but I also like the chance to focus on my figure skating. And some of the people are cool. Not as cool as you and everyone else back there, of course.”

“Well, it’s hard to compare to me.” Jade’s face melted into a genuine smile, something that she hadn’t done for a long time now. “I miss you.”  
“I know. But tell me what’s going on! I can tell you’ve got something on your mind.”

Jade launched into the events of the last few weeks. Everything from meeting Beck, Robbie, and Cat, to her fight with the bully, to her dad’s threats. Leah sat there and listened, and she offered supportive comments from time to time. Jade felt extremely grateful. Leah was the one person she’d come across in her life who made the extended effort to get to know her and then stayed once she did. She was a bit too perky for Jade’s taste, perhaps, but it wasn’t a fatal personality flaw. She was sweet and encouraging, and sometimes Jade needed that in her life. In all her efforts to avoid friends, she had forgotten how good it felt to have a real one.

They talked for half an hour more until Leah had to finish getting ready for the rink. Jade closed the laptop and pushed it off her bed. With the great weight of emotion temporarily relieved from her mind and heart, she laid back down and went to sleep.


End file.
